Within hours of taking office on New Year’s Day, New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, revoked the city’s use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism — a globally recognized framework designed to help governments and institutions identify and respond to anti-Jewish hatred. The decision was briefly announced and then quietly removed from official city channels. But its meaning was unmistakable.
This was not a procedural tweak or a symbolic housekeeping move. It was a deliberate Day One act, fully aligned with positions the mayor had articulated repeatedly during his campaign. Mamdani is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. He has refused to publicly affirm Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. And he has declined to condemn the phrase Globalize the Intifada — a slogan widely understood as a call to violence against Jews worldwide. Revoking the IHRA definition is not incidental to these view…
